Holograms are a staple of science fiction, but the kinds of 3D, multicolored moving images floating in midair from movies like "Star Wars" are still a long way from reality. Now, though, researchers have developed the world’s first stretchable hologram, which could one day enable holographic animation, according to a new study.
In real life, holograms are more like paintings or photographs. They are effectively recordings of a 3D light field. When lit properly, they project a reproduction of the original object. Confusingly, the term refers to both the physical structure the image is recorded on as well as the resulting projection.
Almost all holograms contain a recording of just a single image, but now scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, have built a hologram on flexible polymer material that can hold several images. As the material is stretched, the different images are displayed one after the other, the researchers said. [Science Fact or Fiction? The Plausibility of 10 Sci-Fi Concepts]
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